When Did "The American Dream" Become Debt?

This is something that has confounded and annoyed me for months if not years. Basically, buying a home always has a moniker in the media as "The American Dream". This is actually one of the main selling point of the realtors and home builders when they try to sell to first time buyers. I really don't understand why having a giant load of debt is considered desirable and why it should be a "dream". So I researched the term "American Dream", and found that it was defined in a history book by James Truslow Adams entitled The Epic of America (1931).

The book states, "If, as I have said, the things already listed were all we had to contribute, America would have made no distinctive and unique gift to mankind. But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement." (p. 404). So why is the phrase "American Dream" now synonymous with being a home-debtor?

Maybe I am just not American enough and don't understand this madness, but it seems that the "American Dream" has been twisted through the years to mean bigger homes, more expensive cars, and better electronics. It has become a marketing ploy for people to dive into materialism and lost most of its original sense of hope and goodness. I could see how owning a home could be a facet of the "American Dream" when a house represents the culmination of the owner's hard work, but when that home is financed entirely by debt it contains nothing of the buyer's efforts. When people buy things on credit and slip further and further into debt they're not living "The American Dream". Instead, I think they're living what I would call an "American Delusion", and eventually it spirals into the "American Nightmare" if they can no longer handle their debt obligations.

I think the modern American Dream as we know it is a lie. It's purely a slogan for the credit card companies to spur on spending, or a line for politicians to garnish their speeches. As an immigrant I still hold on to a tiny piece of what the original dream is. I don't think it's about consumerism or materialism. It's about getting a fair chance to achieve success through patience and hard work. It's about building up a better life in a place where opportunities are abundant and available to anyone. The Dream is an ideal that can't be bought, but unfortunately it has devolved into instant gratification and debt.

As I write this article a song is playing in my head and it accurately describes how I feel about America and the reality of the American Dream as it is now and I will share a little of it here:

Flirtin' With Disaster -- Molly Hatchet
I'm travelin' down the road,
I'm flirtin' with disaster.
I've got the pedal to the floor,
My life is running faster.
I'm out of money, I'm out of hope,
It looks like self destruction.
Well how much more can we take,
With all of this corruption.

Been flirtin' with disaster,
Ya'll know what I mean.
And the way we run our lives,
It makes no sense to me.
I don't know about yourself or,
What you want to be - YEAH.
When we gamble with our time,
We choose our destiny.

Chorus:
I'm travelin' down that lonesome road.
Feel like I'm dragging a heavy load.
Yeah! I've tried to turn my head away,
Feels about the same most every day.

I hope you're not dragging a heavy load and flirtin' with disaster, but I would like to know what your definition of the American Dream is. Are you living it right now? Are you as disturbed as me that the America we live in today portrays the quintessence of the American Dream as consumerism and materialism?